EU Sovereignty Score
Self-hosted / open sourceCloud Storage (Personal)Headquarters: NL

FileSender: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

FileSender is an open-source web application for sending files of any size. The sender controls who can download the files and for how long, and the files are deleted automatically after the chosen period. Users authenticate before sending. It was originally created with the needs of scientists and researchers in mind, and instances for research and education are offered by many national research networks and institutes. FileSender is (self-)hosted server software, and service providers can offer it white-label.

FileSender is a programme of The Commons Conservancy, a foundation ("stichting") established under Dutch law, with a board that governs the project. The code is released under the BSD 3-Clause licence, and a new version appeared in September 2026. You can run FileSender on your own servers, in which case uploaded files stay on infrastructure you control, or use an instance operated by an organisation you trust. The maintainer does not run a central hosted service for all users.

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Sovereignty score
94 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-2100
    Headquartered in the EU: European law applies
  • Data residency SOV-3100
    EU-only hosting
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-390
    Self-hostable: encryption keys under your own control
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-680
    Open source: low switching costs
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-6100
    Source code auditable, forkable and self-hostable

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked October 14, 2026
Headquarters
NL (EU)Verified by hand
Sovereignty model
Open-source, distributedVerified by hand
Data hosting
EUVerified by hand
Open-source
YesVerified by hand
GDPR-compliant
YesVendor-stated
Category
Cloud Storage (Personal)
Type
Product
Website
filesender.org ↗

How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to FileSender

The European alternatives to FileSender come from our knowledge base of over 9,200 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

32 European Cloud Storage (Personal) vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

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Why digital sovereignty matters with FileSender

FileSender is headquartered in NL and therefore falls under European law: the GDPR, NIS2 and the Data Act. No foreign legislation can compel access to your data.

Data is hosted exclusively in the EU, so FileSender scores best on data residency.

FileSender is open source. You can audit the source code, self-host the software and keep the encryption keys under your own control. Switching is easier because data and software are not tied to a single party.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs FileSender together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to FileSender?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to FileSender include CargoServer, CloudMe and Cozy Cloud. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to FileSender?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to FileSender include Cozy Cloud, Cryptee, Cyberduck and Filen. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is FileSender GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

FileSender is headquartered in NL (EU) and hosts data in EU. It is also open-source, so you can self-host it. That makes FileSender an EU-sovereign choice in its own right; the EU alternatives on this page are comparable European tools.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on October 14, 2026.

Sources

Public sources used in the latest check of this record.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

No public compliance evidence has been recorded for this vendor yet. Do you know its DPA or subprocessor list? Something wrong? Suggest a correction

In the changelog

Earlier changes to this page, as listed in the public changelog.

Digital sovereignty in Cloud Storage (Personal)

Cloud Storage (Personal): Personal cloud storage — sync and share files. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

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8 European alternatives to FileSender — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score